useradd problem

[khilari]

hi guys i am trying to add a user by using:
useradd –u uid –m –c usercomment -s /usr/bin/sh username

it takes the argument but when i su to the user or try looking for it in the /etc/passwd file its not there.....
what do u guys think

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

I assume that you are root. This works:

# useradd -u 9999 -m -c "New User" -s /usr/bin/sh someuser

If you echo the return value ($?) this should help discover the problem. The retrun codes are documented in the manpages for 'useradd'.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Tingli]

I wonder, that there is no -g for user group and -d for user home directory although you have -m which requires to create a home directory.

[UVK]

Do this and see if you have NIS configured

#ypwhich

Are you working as root on the machine ?

-uvk

[khilari]

when i do a echo $? i get 126 but when i use the same command on other server i get a 0 when i do echo $? i am using
useradd -u 5199 -m -d /home/sm29 -c "sam matt" -s /usr/bin/ksh sm29

what do u guys think,, how should this be erectified

[Tingli]

What is running on it, nis or ldap?

[Taifur]

Hi Khilari,

You can check below link


http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90692/useradd.1M.html

http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-4607/ch04s02.html

Rgds//
Taifur

[Viktor Balogh]

Try to login with that user. If it works though you don't have any related line in /etc/passwd then you must be using LDAP or NIS for authentication. What is the output of:

# grep ^passwd /etc/nsswitch.conf

if there is an entry like 'nis', you can retrieve the passwd line for that user like this:

# ypcat passwd | grep user

Anyway, I suggest to use the pwget command to retrieve the pw-line for a specific user, it queries the local passwd, the NIS database and also LDAP:

# pwget -n username